Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
News media from around the world parachuted into Ohio and Texas this week to cover the much anticipated primary elections that managed to further the Democratic Party’s confusion over their choice for a 2008 presidential candidate.
It usually happens during Holy Week each year — a new rash of media pieces attempting to undermine miraculous stories about Jesus and his life. Some of them have been very bad, but the media find it difficult to miss this annual rite of passage.
As you would expect, I have been following the coverage of the Russian “election” and the rise of Dmitry Medvedev. I have to admit that I have been frustrated by the reports that include snippets about his Orthodox faith and the role that it plays, or does not play, in his life.
News of a growing, sometimes militant, movement targeting Scientology has been brewing in tech publications for a number of weeks now, and mainstream press is finally stepping up to the plate to cover this rather significant situation. In a lenghy story Monday, The Los Angeles Times covers a couple of months worth of Internet and street protests against Scientology.
I came across two stories within moments of each other yesterday. Both, ostensibly, deal with the same Barack Obama town hall event in Ohio. And that’s where the similarities end. Here’s the first paragraph (of three paragraphs!) from the Associated Press:
Someone needs to get a good in-depth interview with the staffer (or staffers) on Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley’s staff who is heading up the investigation of televangelists, which seems to be picking up lately. A couple of meager stories trickled out last week about a couple of ministers/evangelists who are responding to the senator’s inquiries.
Millions of American Catholics loved their parochial school, or remember loving it. There is a whole sub-genre of art about this theme. But why Catholics loved their school is difficult to say. Did they feel close to the Holy Spirit? Do they love its sense of community? Or are they feeling nostalgic?
The Sacramento Bee had a rather interesting politics and religion story Wednesday about statements from a former UCLA basketball player who now heads a fellowship group for California legislators that attack another fellowship that “embraces people of all faiths without insisting that they accept Jesus Christ.”
I’ve never talked to a priest. As a reporter, that is. I’ve talked to bishops and cardinals. I talked even to a former president, which for reporters is a big “get.” But I’ve never talked to a priest.
